I am curious if the faster spindle or larger cache would improve any speed times.... perhaps transferring shows it may improve or stabilize network speed... or increase boot times. what brought this up is there is alot of people having speed issues with Direct TV's new interface and this is having people wonder if a faster HD would help things out for them

The answer is that a faster HD does not help, there have been many threads over the years here, and the consensus is that the way the Tivo OS and filesystem deal with drives and cache speed of the drive never enters into it, thus why 5400RPM drives handle things fine.

__________________"There is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out."

The slow menus are because of the slow Processor. If you can find a way to upgrade THAT you'd probably see some improvement. Not sure why TiVo is so stubborn about putting in such weak processors, but it is what it is. Hopefully the NEXT generation of TiVo will have better hardware.

__________________Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by human error

Yes. True. Although I do have to say, they have made a fairly noticeable improvement in MRV transfer speeds on the Premiere boxes vs. my Series 3 HD's. It's faster going both directions (pulling AND pushing videos). I'm pretty satisfied with that. It's faster than real time and that's all I usually need.

__________________Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by human error

The slow menus are because of the slow Processor. If you can find a way to upgrade THAT you'd probably see some improvement. Not sure why TiVo is so stubborn about putting in such weak processors, but it is what it is. Hopefully the NEXT generation of TiVo will have better hardware.

TiVo's in sort of the same boat as NASA.

By the time they pick a CPU and make sure it's bulletproof and design around it and get to production, there are newer, faster models on the market that weren't there when they started or were there but were too expensive to consider at the time.

By the time they pick a CPU and make sure it's bulletproof and design around it and get to production, there are newer, faster models on the market that weren't there when they started or were there but were too expensive to consider at the time.

A VCR never had "slow menus".. at least not to the same degree.

Heck, the menus on the S1 were actually what I'd say "more complete" (fewer UI glitches), and fairly fast, EXCEPT getting into Now Playing. So they sped that up on later Tivos by making Now Playing "fill in" (but be FAR worse UI-wise, IMHO).

Basically, you should design to the hardware you have, and make things less fluff-filled so they're faster.

By the time they pick a CPU and make sure it's bulletproof and design around it and get to production, there are newer, faster models on the market that weren't there when they started or were there but were too expensive to consider at the time.

I think that's the key sentence right there. They basically cheaped out thinking the lower price would increase sales. I think a better product would increase sales. So it's a matter of priority. I know it's thier choice, but I think they could take a lesson from Apple here.

__________________Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by human error